Detention: On April 21, 2022, 34-year-old IT specialist from Kherson, Ivan Kozlov, was detained by FSB officers of the Russian Federation at a checkpoint in the city of Armyansk. He was attempting to evacuate his wife Maria and their two young children from occupied Kherson to Georgia. After undergoing so-called 'filtration', the occupiers allowed his wife and children to pass, but Ivan was unlawfully taken into custody.

Sentence: In November 2023, the Russian-controlled so-called Supreme Court of Crimea sentenced Ivan Kozlov to 11 years of imprisonment in a high-security penal colony. He was found guilty of alleged 'espionage' on fabricated charges of transferring coordinates of Russian military locations to the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine. In the spring of 2024, the occupation appellate court upheld this sentence without changes.

Ivan Volodymyrovych Kozlov was born on July 7, 1988, in the city of Kherson. Before the full-scale invasion, his life was peaceful, focused on career development and raising children. Ivan obtained higher education and found his calling in the field of information technology. About a year before the large-scale war, he successfully passed the selection process and began working as a business analyst at the Ukrainian IT company ArtSoft.

The couple was raising two young children—a son and a daughter. The family owned an apartment in Kherson, located near the strategically important Antonivskyi Bridge. This bridge became the site of fierce and bloody battles between the Ukrainian Defense Forces and Russian invaders from the early hours of February 24, 2022.

The morning of February 24, 2022, changed the Kozlov family's life forever. They could not immediately leave the city due to complex personal and logistical circumstances. For two months, they were forced to survive under harsh Russian occupation, hiding from explosions with their two small children.

When staying in the city became mortally dangerous and the pressure from the occupation authorities intensified, Ivan and Maria decided to escape the trap. At that time, there was practically no direct humanitarian corridor to Ukrainian-controlled territory, so the only available, though extremely risky, route was through the occupied Crimean Peninsula towards Georgia. They hoped to transit through enemy-controlled territories to reach a safe place.

On April 21, 2022, the Kozlov family arrived at the Russian checkpoint in the city of Armyansk, on the administrative border between the Kherson region and annexed Crimea. There, Russian military and FSB officers conducted a total check of civilians—so-called 'filtration'. Men and women were separated for detailed interrogations and personal belongings checks. Maria, with her small children in her arms, underwent exhausting interrogations for over a day and a half.

Ivan was taken for a separate interrogation that lasted several hours. While Maria waited for her husband in the terminal, trying to learn any details about his fate, Russian military personnel acted brutally and provided no explanations. Eventually, one of the armed occupiers pointed her in a direction with a weapon and cynically stated, 'You will not see your husband again.' Maria and the children were forcibly removed from the checkpoint. The Russians confiscated almost all her equipment, but she miraculously managed to hide an old mobile phone in a backpack among children's clothes. Once in Georgia, she began raising the alarm and informing human rights defenders about her husband's abduction.

After Ivan Kozlov's abduction, he was secretly transported to occupied Simferopol. He was placed in a separate, newly constructed pre-trial detention centre building, which the occupiers completely isolated and equipped specifically for holding civilian hostages taken from the southern regions of Ukraine. Conditions there were significantly harsher than in regular prison cells: detainees were under constant video surveillance and in complete informational isolation.

During the first year of detention, Russian prison guards and FSB investigators subjected Ivan to severe psychophysiological torture. They lied to him daily, claiming that his wife Maria had also been arrested and that their two small children had been placed in an orphanage somewhere deep in Russia. This psychological attack drove the young man to deep despair and severe depression. Believing his family was destroyed, Ivan attempted suicide several times.

The situation changed only in May 2023, when Ivan's data was finally officially entered into the general Russian Federal Penitentiary Service system. This allowed Maria to send him the first letter through a paid online service. Earlier, through an independent lawyer hired by the family instead of a state-appointed Russian defender, Maria sent her husband a handwritten note. In it, she informed him that they and the children were alive, safe, and had managed to escape the occupation. This news restored Ivan's will to live. To maintain a connection with his son while in captivity, Ivan began writing fairy tales for him and sending them in letters.

The Russian investigation fabricated a criminal case against the civilian from Kherson over six months. Since Crimea and Kherson are, under international law, Ukrainian territory, the occupiers violated international humanitarian law norms and charged Ivan under Article 276 of the Russian Criminal Code—'espionage'.

After the trials, the torture and abuse of Ivan Kozlov in the occupiers' penitentiary institutions did not cease. The Russian administration continues to apply psychological and physical pressure on him. Specifically, they systematically subject him to artificial sleep deprivation: guards intentionally wake him in the middle of the night, and sleeping or even lying down during the day is strictly prohibited. It is impossible to send any humanitarian or medical aid to Ivan in Crimea, as the occupation zone is completely closed to Ukrainian and international organizations, leaving strictly censored correspondence as the only link to the outside world.

Information used from open sources: ZMINA, Suspilne Kherson, Center for Civil Liberties, Hromadske Radio, IT portal dev.ua, specialized publication DOU, Center for Investigative Journalism.

Photo: Suspilne Kherson.

Updated: 11.07.2026.